“In the name of intellectual honestly, southerners might as well admit that slavery was in fact, an important factor. Northerners should admit that it was far from the only factor, and that Lincoln broke the law on multiple occasions.”
Well, slavery itself was not the issue for the South. Rather, it was the desire and belief that what they (the South) developed and earned they should be able to keep; or, if taxes had to be paid by the South (which were the “revenues” Lincoln so eagerly wished to keep), that an equitable portion of those revenues should be spent on Southern infrastructure, Southern improvements, etc.
No one who is honest will deny that the Southern states got short shrift when it came to spending federal revenues.
Fort Sumpter, in the middle of Charleston harbor, was the biggest Federal boondoggle project ever attempted to that point. It was millions of dollars over 30 years, all at the insistance of John C. Calhoon, that anti-internal improvments Senator from South Carolina.
It is truly ironic that the war broke out over that man-made island and the Lost Causers blame the "Yankees" for stealing all their money.